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An adorable and powerful stowaway is currently aboard SpaceX’s Crew-1 flight, floating freely inside the company’s spacecraft as it heads toward the International Space Station. A Baby Yoda plush – yes, technically The Child – from The mandalorian can be seen in live footage from inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, swinging inside the cockpit and colliding with all four crew members in flight.
The inclusion of Baby Yoda is part of a long tradition in manned space flight. The toy is what’s known as the flight’s “zero-gravity gauge,” a small object used to determine when the spacecraft is in orbit and has reached an environment of microgravity. When the Crew Dragon separated from its Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, Baby Yoda rose from its position and became a very soft piece of debris within the Crew Dragon.
Astronauts often choose very nice zero gravity indicators for their travels, which adds some pleasure to their missions. During SpaceX’s first crewed flight in May, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley brought with them a stuffed dinosaur named Tremor, which had been chosen by their children. Other zero-gravity indicators from the past have included a plush Earth, nicknamed “Earthy,” which flew in SpaceX’s first unmanned flight test of Crew Dragon. When Boeing flew its CST-100 Starliner on an unmanned test flight in 2019, a little Snoopy in an astronaut suit was tucked inside.
I’m sure the Crew-1 team decided on their zero-G indicator together, but maybe they got a bit of inspiration from a certain space reporter who may have suggested taking the Force into space.
Baby Yoda has a lot of experience flying in space with his Mandalorian space father, so The Child should be a delightful member of the crew. Fortunately, Crew Dragon uses only touchscreen controls, which is nice since we know how much Baby Yoda loves flipping switches. However, hopefully there are no eggs on the crew’s breakfast menu.
